8th Dbq Essay On The Cold War

QUESTION: How did the Cold War begin and what "weapons" were used to fight this war?

The Cold War was "the struggle for global power between the United States and the Soviet Union following World War II" (History book, pg. 874). The Cold War began by controversial wants and needs from two different countries and several different "weapons" were used to fight this controversial war. The feuds eventually kept building up, greater and greater, resulting in one great war. Two countries, the United States and the Soviet Union both took part in fighting.

The Cold war began for a number of different reasons. One of the main reasons this war began was that there were huge differences in the way that the Soviet and the US led one another and the disagreements eventually reached a final rising point, causing several feuds as well, riots. The US was a democratic state where many parties could stand and elections were held.

It was a fair and politically correct policy for everyone. "I believe it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted domination by armed minorities or outside pressure." (DBQ 2) The Soviet was a communist state, where the political party controlled the state. The people basically had no free will.

More reasons as to how the Cold War started up would be affected by the mistrust between the two countries. It started as far back as the October Revolution of 1917. When the communists came to power, they created harsher ways of ruling their country, which angered the US greatly. One last reason on how the Cold War came about was the US fear of Russian expansion. In 1922, Russia combined with five other states creating the Soviet Union. In 1936 five...

Essay on DBQ: Cold War

1041 Words5 Pages

A war does not necessarily require a physical weapon to fight. From 1947 to 1991, military tension and ideological conflicts held place. Cold War is defined as a state of political hostility existing between countries, characterized by threats, violent propaganda, subversive activities, and other measures short of open warfare, in particular. The causes of the cold war between United States and the Soviet Union were the mutual distrust that had taken place in World War II, intense rivalry between the two super powers, and conflicting ideologies. The two superpowers differed in views of political and economic principles and were eager to spread their ideologies to many countries. United States were in favor of democracy and capitalism while…show more content…

There is a part in the excerpt from a speech by Nikita Khrushchev that informs about the actions of U.S. developing an “anti-communism” slogan (Document 6). The two superpowers were definitely afraid of the other nation increasing in power and influence. They were both eager to spread and emphasize their own ideology and boost their national self-esteem, but also were desperate to denounce the opposing ideology and seek for opportunities to restrain the other power’s influence. Such slogans in U.S. were created for the sake of containment. Containment is defined as the action or policy of preventing the expansion of a hostile country or influence which was the USSR in Cold War seen from the perspective of U.S. Economic aid for nations, especially Europe, was another weapon used to fight the war. After World War II, most of European countries were in a desperate situation. They suffered in poverty, hunger, and disease. Improved technology and the development of explosives with massive powers led to the devastation of Europe. Approximately 36 million European men have died in World War II. Not only did the population decrease, infrastructure had to be reconstructed and it required tremendous amount of reparation. As the European countries were weakened economically and militarily, they were desperate and more likely to rather fall into and be attracted to the Soviet Union’s communism than United States’ democracy. United